The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

BOSTON — Even before the game began, Shawn Thornton knew he would once again have to step up to the plate for the Bruins.

The chatter around TD Garden (much of it generated by the media, mind you) was that the Sabres needed to prove they were a tougher team after the lack of response to Milan Lucic’s trucking of Ryan Miller last season.

Although that was ‘handled’ in the following meeting when Lucic fought Paul Gaustad, there was still plenty of buzz, particularly from Buffalo fans that want to see their team stand up to the ‘Big, Bad Bruins.’

So in the pregame warmups, Thornton and new Sabre John Scott — that’s the 6-foot-8, 270-pound John Scott — chatted at center ice. It didn’t take a hockey know-it-all to figure out what they were talking about.

On their first shift together, Thornton and Scott immediately dropped the gloves. Then Scott immediately dropped Thornton, grabbing the much shorter pugilist by the jersey and pummeling him until he fell to the ice.

Thornton wobbled to his feet and went to the penalty box, but never returned to the game. Coach Claude Julien said after the 7-4 loss he would be evaluated Friday.

But the impact of Thornton stepping up to take some punches from a man five inches taller and some 50 pounds heavier was not lost on his teammates.

"I wasn’t too sure if Thorty was gonna fight him, but that’s the type of guy he is," Tyler Seguin said. "Make sure no one else had to do the job and, you know, did it. I came in and saw him, he looked like he was doing fine."

It’s hard to imagine a more difficult matchup for Thornton. But there’s no more respected fighter in the league than Thornton, who’s earned that rank by honoring the ‘code’ of fighting. He never hits a guy after he’s down or has his head covered by his jersey, backs up his teammates and fights for the right reasons.

On Thursday, that was to make sure no one else had to suffer the wrath of Scott. And he paid for it.

"He’s one of the toughest guys in the league," Rich Peverley said. "I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m sure he’ll be fine."

STRING OF INJURIES: Thornton wasn’t the only one to leave the game. Patrice Bergeron (shoulder), Dougie Hamilton (jaw) and Daniel Paille (face) all went down the tunnel to the locker room at some point.

All but Paille returned. Paille took a stick to the face from Tyler Myers that drew blood in the third period. Julien said he’ll be reevaluated Friday.

THIRD LINE SUCCESS: The reworked third line of Paille, Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley had its best offensive game of the season.

Peverley had a goal in the second period off a scrum in front of the net, then nearly scored again in transition shortly after. Peverley had a team-high six shots on Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller.

"We had a lot of chances tonight, and I thought our energy level was good," Peverley said. "We’ve been getting some chances, our line, in the past couple games and it’s good to get a goal, but we have to defend better."

Chris Bourque had been the third-line left wing for the first six games and the line didn’t have a goal together.

Paille and Peverley are two of the Bruins’ three fastest players, and their speed generated some chances in transition.

However, with the uncertainty of Thornton and Paille, Julien may be forced to break up the line after just one game.

SEGUIN AT HIS BEST: Tyler Seguin played his best all-around game of the season.

Seguin’s defensive play in the neutral zone, then screening Miller, led to Brad Marchand’s second goal. Seguin had several other chances as well.

"We’ve talked about that, just being more assertive, because when he’s more assertive, he’s more sure of everything he’s going to do," Julien said. "It makes him that much of a better player. So I thought he did a good job tonight because he was one of the main reasons why Brad scored like that."

For all the miscues and defensive mistakes the Bruins made, Seguin was only on the ice for Buffalo’s seventh goal, an empty-netter.

CONTROVERSY AT THE END?: Sabres coach Lindy Ruff called a timeout with 14 seconds left that elicited some strong comments in the Bruins’ locker room.

However, Ruff was not trying to rub it in the Bruins’ faces. Boston had Lane MacDermid on the ice against Buffalo’s top line, and not wanting to risk his top guys taking an unnecessary hit, Ruff called timeout and subbed in his fourth line.

"I didn’t want anything to happen, and that’s really all it was about," Ruff said.

That didn’t stop Marchand, who likely didn’t realize Ruff’s reasoning, from saying, "(Ruff) wants to be a big shot, and it was not the best play to do, but pretty disrespectful. So if he wants to be like that, that’s fine and we just have to move on."